Just a few weeks before Apple’s expected announcement of the Apple Watch 8 range, including a new Pro version of the watch, Samsung has stolen a march on its rival by launching the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro.
Both Galaxy devices are fitness-focused smartwatches that run WearOS and pack in a variety of impressive features to help you stay on top of a healthy lifestyle. As well as tracking your activity and sleep, the watches can measure your body composition, so you can track your weight as well as how much of that is body fat and how much is muscle mass.
These software features were also available on the Galaxy Watch4, and it’s only really the hardware of the new watches that has been upgraded. Both the Galaxy Watch5 and Watch5 Pro have stronger sapphire crystal screens and bigger batteries than the Watch4. The Watch5 Pro outperforms the standard Watch5 on both of those fronts, while also having a titanium case and a smarter strap with a magnetic D buckle. The Watch5 Pro will also give turn-by-turn directions when hiking or cycling if you upload a GPX file via the Samsung Health app.
Samsung didn’t give battery estimates for the watches at the launch event beyond saying the Watch5 Pro will offer 20 hours of GPS tracking and last twice as long as the standard Watch5. Given the array of features and bright AMOLED screens, we still wouldn’t expect them to last much more than a day on a charge if you’re tracking activities with GPS.
Both the new watches have a larger BioActive Sensor which should increase the accuracy of the health tracking on offer, which includes blood oxygen saturation, ECG and blood pressure measurements along with the body composition tracking.
Sleep tracking is a key feature on the watches, which will not only record and analyse your sleep in detail but also assign you a sleep animal in line with your sleep style. It will then provide advice and “missions” to help you improve your sleep.
Samsung Galaxy Watch5: Price & Release Date
The Watch5 is available in 40mm and 44mm sizes, both of which have cellular versions – these have the designation LTE. The 40mm Watch5 is £269 for the standard version and £319 for the LTE version, while the 44mm is £289 standard and £339 LTE. The Watch5 Pro comes in one size (45mm) and is £429 for the standard version and £479 for the cellular watch.
The watches are available to order from 10th August in the UK and go on general sale 26th August.
Along with the new watches Samsung has launched two new foldable phones, the Flip4 and Fold5, and some new wireless headphones, the Galaxy Buds2 Pro.
